Double up on brewing

[Codfishhead]

I know I'm using this as more of an excuse than anything but brewing 2 beers at once does seem to cut time.

Do you guys double up on brew day?

I'm going to get one beer going and as soon as I get it into the boil pot I'm going to start mashing another.

Plus I need to use some of this before the wife asks me how much I'm spending on MORE beer.

 

[Hello]

I've read posts about people doing it, but I've never tried it. I will though soon enough. I usually brew 10 gallons at a time if I love the recipe, but never did two brews back to back. It seems like it could be done fairly easily.

 

[Transamguy77]

I've done it, don't plan on a timeline, cause the minutes start adding into hours. Each few minute setback will add a lot of time by the end. I just started brewing one late the night before then one in the am then I didn't have to clean up till the second day.

 

[day_trippr]

It does indeed make for a long day, but I've been doing double 5 gallon batches/different recipes for a couple of years, roughly every other brew day. Pretty much just to keep the pipeline full while being available a couple weekends a month for the Spousal Unit and the grandkids.

But I'm upgrading my kettle and tuns for 10 gallon batches to try to get back to one batch days. I'll keep the 10g vessels though, as some days I'll split the boil and hop the two halves differently...

Cheers!

 

[Beernik]

I routinely do double brew days or brew on back-to-back days. I like it a lot. I get two 5 gallon batches and split a big starter between them.

The last double brew day I did took me 11 hours from set up to clean up. But I can't mash one while boiling the other.

 

[TexasWine]

I did a double brew day with two 5 gallon batches a few months back, BIAB style in the kitchen! Borrowed a friends kettle to pull it off and everything went pretty smooth.

Staggered them by about 30 minutes and total time spent was only about 5 hours.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

I did a double batch in September, one traditional 3-vessel with a fly sparge, one BIAB, simultaneously. It was a blast!

 

[bbrim]

Write out your plan for the day, and weigh things out before hand. Also, its a big help to pre crush your grains. The parts of the brew day that are usually downtime will be very busy. I brew like that fairly often. I start with a 5g batch then fire up a 10g batch (start the mash during the other boil. I'm done in under 8 hours.
It will be hectic the first time. As long as you make a plan for everything and stay focused you'll be fine. Make sure you have enough propane on hand and all your equipment is good before you start. A broken thermometer or leaky ball valve or a fermenter issue is a back breaker when things are happening fast.
I'm sure you'll have fun. Maybe you can convince the wife to go do something fun so she won't realize just how much time you're spending. Cheers!

 

[slarkin712]

I do two 5 gallon batches back to back nearly every brew day. Usually takes about 6 to 6.5 hours. When the boil starts on the first batch I begin heating the mash water for the second batch. That usually gives me about 30 minutes between flame out on the first batch and draining the first runnings on the second batch. I usually have everything measured out the day before, so that it is not hectic. Doing two batches is definitely a time saver overall. Setup and cleanup is only done once, but two batches are produced. There is a lot less standing around and waiting compared to doing a single batch. Once the second batch starts boiling its smooth sailing. Crack open a brew and enjoy the satisfaction of soon having two batches fermenting at once. Twice the fun!

 

[Codfishhead]

Nice to see I'm not alone.

Just finished brewing a Brown Ale. Start to finish was 4 hrs 50 min including clean up. I timed and wrote down each step tonight. It's my second brew on the system. I have the process down pretty well.
I was also planning my steps to do a second brew at the same time. Including grinding while the first batch is mashing. I have it adding 1 hr and 15 mins to hr and a half.

I'm going to do 2 beers this weekend. Brew up a Choc Porter and a ???
Still deciding. Maybe a Christmas beer. Maybe a Wheat or another lager. Still up in the air on one beer.

 

[BrewinBromanite]

I always do two 5.5-6 gal batches simultaneously. My bro in law and I each got our first equipment a few years ago for extract stovetop batches, and as we've upgraded, we've just doubled up equipment. It really probably doesn't add much extra time with our setup. We heat mash water, mash, drain, boil, etc...both batches at the same time. (Very low tech BIAB, so equipment is pretty cheap). Dual bayou classic burner/1-propane tank is a plus. It's also nice always having two different beers in the pipeline.


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[Codfishhead]

My system isn't quite completed yet. When it's done it will be easier n quicker to double up back to back batches.

I'm limited now to a single burner. I have another burner at my friends I'm going to pick up today. He was making me heat shields. My plan was to have 2 burners but I've already decide I'm buying another to have 3. One under each keg. Hard gas line n a switch for the pump. Then paint her up and she'll be all done.

 

[sputnam]

that's how i do it. I enjoy brewing but getting out all my stuff, cleaning it and putting it away is a drag. Now I only gotta do that about once a month

 

[homebrew57]

my brew partner and I have done double 5 gallon brew days a lot. Our normal one batch brew day takes about 4.5-5 hours, a double batch day takes about 7 so definitely a time saver to do two batches at once.

 

[schematix]

1. Measure all of your ingredients ahead of time. Have recipe plans in hand. Organization is crucial.
2. Keep your HLT topped off and heated at all times. This can easily become a bottleneck. Worst case if you get to temp early, turn the burner off.
3. Mash in the 2nd batch with about 5-10 minutes remaining in the first boil. This will give you adequate time for cool down, racking, and cleaning the BK from the first batch. If you can't cool, rack and clean within 50 minutes then delay your mash in a little.

I used to do this a lot with a brew partner. We'd do 10G batches and then split. We'd start around 7:30am and finish around 2:30-5pm depending upon mash, boil times and number of drunken mistakes. Worked great.

 

[murphyslaw]

I've done it a few times but always found that it takes much longer than I expect and that I end up making more mistakes throughout the day. I ended up not making very good beer and stopped.

 

[kombat]

I've done it a few times. If you have a second burner, you can overlap part of the processes (I heat the strike water for the second batch as I clean out the mash tun and heat the first batch to a boil). It helps to remember that you can leave the second batch mashing well beyond the planned time if you find yourself falling behind on the first batch. Mashing for 60-90-120 minutes doesn't make any difference.

I find it makes for a stressful day, at least until that first batch is tucked away with the yeast pitched and I can focus on the second batch. It reduces my enjoyment of the brew day and increases the chances of me making a mistake, so I don't tend to do it anymore unless I'm brewing for a big event (party, BBQ, whatever) and need a bunch of beers coming out of the pipeline relatively close together.

I much prefer just brewing 10 gallon batches instead. I still get twice the beer as a 5 gallon batch, but without the stress and headache of managing two workflows simultaneously.

 

[Redhawk96]

My partner and I have been doing 4 10-gallon batches in a single brew day the last 5 or so times we have brewed. schematix makes several great points above about weighing out the ingrdients (except hops, which we do last minute), and keeping the HLT topped off at all times.

I think the Beersmith software also is a huge help in this process of multi-batch brew days. We have all 4 recipes entered ahead of time, and the timer function keeps us on task and from forgetting steps.

Also, it is better to delay your mash in on the next brew then it is to be rushing. We are able to get 4 batches complete in about 12 hours from first heating the strike water of batch one to all cleaned up and put away.

A huge advantage to doing this, besides building inventory is getting direct comparisons of slight recipe changes. We always make 2 west coast IPAs, and use the same grain bill for both, then vary the type of hops we use in the recipe. There is no substitute to having two beers on tap, where the only difference is say Citra vs. Amarillo for late and dry hopping.

We also often target one of the batches for a bigger beer that we will plan on bottling and aging for awhile, such as a Tripel, RIS, or DIPA. This is another great way to build inventory and have different styles on hand at all times.

 

[StonesBally]

I almost always either do back to back 10 gallon batches or simultaneous 10 and 5 gallon batches. Measure everything out ahead of time and label it. Keep the recipes separate or you will forget something. Check things off as you go. Expect it to take a few hours longer than you would think the first time. Once you get it down though, it is great. I can do back to back batches only adding about an hour to brew day. I have three kids under 4. I have to take advantage of every chance I get to brew. I try to keep at least 3 taps going at all times.

 

[Codfishhead]

That's great time SB. I'm looking at it adding an hr to hour in a half on paper. I just brewed a beer that took me 4 hrs. That's my third beer off this new system. First beer took me 6 plus. Processes are falling into place. I rebuilt my leaf blower carb and fix a muffler pipe on out mini van while brewing this weekend. I'm now waiting instead of rushing which makes for a much more enjoyable brew day/night


Hang in there with the four kids. I'm in the same boat but my little ones are all 6'3" and larger now. 19 is the youngest. Spend as much time as possible with your kids. It pays off.

 

[Codfishhead]

My partner and I have been doing 4 10-gallon batches in a single brew day the last 5 or so times we have brewed.

Red 4 beers in one session is killer. I plan on. Doing some brew days for people to use my system. Was wondering how many we could go in a single session. Long day but literally half the time for 4 beer in the end.

 

[Codfishhead]

=Redhawk96;6492505]My partner and I have been doing 4 10-gallon batches in a single brew day the last 5 or so times we have brewed.

Red 4 beers in one session is killer. I plan on offering some brew days for people to use my system. Was wondering how many beers we could do in a single session. Long day but literally half the time for 4 beer in the end.

 

[Redhawk96]

We just did another 4 batch day yesterday. I started heating up the strike water on the first batch at 7:15 or so, and had mashed in the first batch at 8 am. We had all four batches in the fermenters and moved to the basement, and all the equipment cleaned up and stored away by just before 8 pm.

It makes for a long day, but the inventory build is worth it. I would add that having a partner is probably a good idea, it is much easier to keep everything on task with two people.

 

[mbbransc]

I brew (2) 5-gallon batches every brew day. I stagger them about 30-45 minutes. I have a brew partner and we generally finish in about 5.5-6 hours.

 

[eric19312]

We just did another 4 batch day yesterday. I started heating up the strike water on the first batch at 7:15 or so, and had mashed in the first batch at 8 am. We had all four batches in the fermenters and moved to the basement, and all the equipment cleaned up and stored away by just before 8 pm.

It makes for a long day, but the inventory build is worth it. I would add that having a partner is probably a good idea, it is much easier to keep everything on task with two people.

Inspirational!

When I brew with a buddy we normally do 2x10 gallon batches. Start at 10, clean-up done between 6 and 7. I have a couple bottlenecks to work out but main issue I run into is capacity of my fermentation refrigerator. 2x5 gallon batches maxes me out right now so I need to do one beer I control and a second beer without control.

 

[catdaddy66]

I routinely do double brew days or brew on back-to-back days. I like it a lot. I get two 5 gallon batches and split a big starter between them.

The last double brew day I did took me 11 hours from set up to clean up. But I can't mash one while boiling the other.

I have only done it once (last weekend before Halloween) and took me from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm. Did a partigyle of an RIS and second runnings for an American stout which I bottled last Sunday. It's always ambitious to do two brews in a day but I say go for it! It will help you dial in your process and that's always good.


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[Codfishhead]

Now you guys have me thinking, can I push for a double batch Friday night when i won't be able to start till 6 or 7pm

 

[slimreturns]

I'm brewing 2, 5 gallon batches right now. One is a chocolate porter and the other is an experimental ChaIPA.

 

[mblanks2]

I have only done it once (last weekend before Halloween) and took me from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm. Did a partigyle of an RIS and second runnings for an American stout which I bottled last Sunday. It's always ambitious to do two brews in a day but I say go for it! It will help you dial in your process and that's always good.


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I asked this question in the KTG post but since what you have done is nearly identical to what my plan is I thought I would post here as well.
I am planning this for next Saturday. I have a friend coming by to assist with Kate the Great RIS.
Since the Kate Stout is so large I’m considering doing a parti-gyle batch. According to Randy Mosher’s Brewing Techniques the second running should be approx. 1.050 and the color will drop from a 56 to 23 SRM.
Here’s my thoughts:
Add 1lb of flaked oats and 4 ounces of the Black Prinz to get the Stout color back. Change styles to Oatmeal Stout and let it mash in the fly sparge water for an additional hour or 75 minutes while the first boil is going. Add the same chemicals to the second running sparge as I did to the original sparge. Fly sparge to get equivalent amount of pre-boil volume as the first batch. Hop with same types of hops to 39 IBU’s and ferment at same time with same yeast.
What do you think?

 

[eric19312]

I asked this question in the KTG post but since what you have done is nearly identical to what my plan is I thought I would post here as well.
I am planning this for next Saturday. I have a friend coming by to assist with Kate the Great RIS.
Since the Kate Stout is so large I’m considering doing a parti-gyle batch. According to Randy Mosher’s Brewing Techniques the second running should be approx. 1.050 and the color will drop from a 56 to 23 SRM.
Here’s my thoughts:
Add 1lb of flaked oats and 4 ounces of the Black Prinz to get the Stout color back. Change styles to Oatmeal Stout and let it mash in the fly sparge water for an additional hour or 75 minutes while the first boil is going. Add the same chemicals to the second running sparge as I did to the original sparge. Fly sparge to get equivalent amount of pre-boil volume as the first batch. Hop with same types of hops to 39 IBU’s and ferment at same time with same yeast.
What do you think?

I did this last time I made an RIS. Went for a porter. Added about 5 pounds grain 3.5 base malt and 1.5 specialty. Calculated the sugar contribution from my first beer's third runnings were worth about 4 lbs of DME. Had some issues with the mash tun - stuck sparge - turned into long brew day. Fermented with S-04, went from 1.057 to 1.020. Was disappointed in malt character in gravity sample - even at 1.020 my notes say "meh". So added some cacao nibs in secondary and cold pressed coffee at bottling. Overall turned out to be a pretty good beer but not what I'd hoped for.

In the end it was interesting experiment but in about the same time I could have brewed a second beer with all fresh ingredients and probably been happier with the result. The value of those third runnings (maybe $15 on DME basis, a lot less on base malt basis) was not enough to justify the hassle.

 

[djfriesen]

I use a partigyle method for my multi-brew days. With a little creativity (playing with water additions to dilute first runnings, capping the mash, etc), you can actually build in quite a bit of versatility from a wort-production standpoint.

 

[ABVIBUSRM]

Yes i have did double brewdays..gotta wake up early but the more time i spend brewing the happier i am

 

[TwoGunz]

I do 2 five gallon batches in parallel every time. I have 2 identical setups using freestanding burners and cooler MLTs. When I'm really ambitious, or low on beer, I'll do back to back dual batches.


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[beernutz]

I would love to try doubling up batches on brew day but my current fermentation freezer only holds 2 5 gallon buckets and since I brew 10 gallon batches I'd have nowhere to put the other two fermenters.

 

[mummasan]

I've done a double batch with the partigyle method and by doing a large 8 gallon batch and splitting it into two batches with different yeasts. I have only one small fermentation fridge though so that was a challenge. I ended up fermenting in two corneys b/c they both fit in my fridge that way. I removed the beer-out nut and assembly and jammed an airlock in there. Worked perfectly and I was able to produce double the beer for roughly the same work/effort.

Partigyle pros - made two completely different beers, can be creative with the recipes
Partigyle cons - fermented two different beers/yeasts at the same temps, brew day took longer because I needed a seperate boil for each beer

Large batch pros - same amount of worrk/effort but end up with more beer, get to isolate what yeast really contributes to a beer (same base recipe but use different yeasts)
Large batch cons - fermented two different yeasts at the same temps, had to alter my tried and true 5 gallon recipes for the larger batch size, have a large quantity of a very similar tasting beer

 

[brrman]

I did three 10 gallon batches in one day once. Took about 10 hours. As soon as I had all my wort in the kettle I would fill my HLT for the next batch and be mashing before that boil was over. It's pretty crazy keeping everything on track but not all that hard.

 

[Codfishhead]

Now you guys have me thinking, can I push for a double batch Friday night when i won't be able to start till 6 or 7pm

Little shot this morn but pulled off a double brew night last night. Started heating water at 7pm. Was hosing out my kegs at 1am in the F,n freezing cold. Had to turn off n drain my garden hoses last night as it dropped into the low 20's. I HATE Winter! Can't wait for the wife to give me the thumbs up to move from this frozen tax you to death state. Tarpon fishing daily in a Fort Myers sounds so much better than leaf clean up.

Anyways an 8 gal batch of Choc Porter ran first. Going to spit it in half for second stage an add roaster pumpkin chunks to half n (don't laugh! ladies request) Candy Canes to the other half. Choc Mint Porter for Christmas n Pumpkin Choc Porter per season. As soon as I drained off the Porter into the boil pot I grabbed a hand truck n took the hot ass spent grain keg into my garden n dumped it. Thought it would be a nice fertilizer but the deer come eat it.

Crushed the grain while boiling the Porter as well as heated the next batch of sparge water. Started mashing up my Big Nose IPA. Around midnight n my fourth beer I decided don't do double batches past 6 at night.

Other than being late all went as planned. Added about an hour n a half. Well worth it. As long as I have vessels to put 2 batches in ill shoot for a double batch. Also plan on letting other use my system so this was a great timing test.